Business studies lessons come home to roost

They admit their initial investment of £68 has yet to pay them dividends, but they say it is a good one. “It’s worked because we’ve been able to breed from them,” says Alex. “And we’ll keep doing it. We’ll breed more and more as we get more customers.”

Their original stock, a Rhode Island Red cockerel and four Light Sussex hens, live in the fields around Charlie’s house in Cartworth Moor, near Holmfirth, with 13 of their offspring.

Behind Alex’s house at Cop Hill, near Pole Moor in Huddersfield, are another 13 home-bred hens, plus a hen and a cockerel left over from Alex’s father’s flock, which was attacked by what the family suspect was a stoat or mink.

Originally the boys planned to keep sheep, but they decided it was too risky. Alex says: “With sheep, if you don’t look after them properly it’s a much bigger loss; about £60 an animal. With chickens it’s a lot more effort to get set up but there’s space for expansion.”

They watched friends and family buy chickens, and observed that many stopped laying, became ill or died. “They weren’t as strong,” says Alex. “You don’t know where they’re coming from at all. They could have diseases or be ex-battery hens.”

“When chickens stop laying people don’t want them any more,’ adds Charlie. “They take them to market and you can get them for a good price. It’s good for small scale producers but they’re often winding down.”

They are learning fast, but they know they have a lot to learn. “We don’t know nearly as much as the farmers who’ve been doing it for a long time,” says Alex.

The boys have been taking advice from neighbouring farmers and smallholders and their families. This persuaded them to spend a little more money on good quality breeding stock from a reputable supplier, Storrs Poultry in Oxspring near Sheffield.

They have received good husbandry advice too. Charlie says: “My uncle’s 80. He’s been a farmer all his life. He knows pretty much all there is to know. I rang him when we needed to get rid of them. He said pull their heads off.”

Charlie finds this difficult but Alex is confident. He says: “You’ve got to really go for it and make sure it’s done properly. The first time was horrible, it wasn’t nice at all.”

But, he says, their chickens have a good life. “From us breeding all these chickens, I know we’re taking business away from supermarkets and big business. I think the way we do it is better for the birds.”

Setting up was a big effort, but the boys agree it was fun. Charlie made the most of some disused sheds on his father’s smallholding. “We had one shed full of old rubbish,” he says. “It took me about a week to clear it out. I swept it out and made a partition wall using some of the wood I found in the shed.

“We already had chicken wire and a feeder. For nesting boxes I used three wooden boxes that were hanging around, they were perfect.

“I made a perch out of a post with holes in it – I don’t know where my dad gets this stuff from. And I built another coup out of a shed with the end fallen off and used an old rabbit hutch for nesting boxes. I really like putting things together out of wood. I did it on my own but if my dad didn’t have anything else to do he’d help.”

Alex acquired his grandfather’s handmade, First World War vintage henhouse. “That was free as well,” says Alex. “It’s really well made and really clever. The chicken hutch, hatches and boxes all flat-pack down into the base.

“We brought it over flat-packed on a trailer and laid it out on the ground; the base, the sides and the bits that go inside. It was kind of a big puzzle.” Alex painted the outside, creosoted the inside and it was ready for the chickens.

“At the beginning the original breeding stock laid us eggs and that paid for the food,” he says.

“Now we have 25 laying hens, but we still need to take eggs to put into the incubator. Of 40 eggs in the incubator, half hatch and half of those are male.”

Another intelligent decision helped make their business viable. It is possible to tell the difference between male and female Light Sussex chicks from about five weeks.

Males show more red in the comb, have longer legs and bigger feet, and stand more upright than the pullets, while pullets’ combs remain yellow and compact.

“We don’t know much but if you get two chicks you can sex them,” says Charlie. “It means we don’t have to feed the male chicks.”

Alex adds: “With breeding all the chickens, for 21 weeks we’re feeding them up and they’re not giving us anything back. Each will eat a certain amount of feed.

“We use two bags of feed every week. It’s gone up from £6.48 to £6.68. Each penny does add up every time.

“They’re really fast growers,” he adds. “I went away for a couple of weeks and they’re twice the size they were.”

Alex and Charlie keep their accounts updated online, using a Google spreadsheet which they can both edit and update with information about production, sales, income and expenses. After they finish their GCSEs, they hope to attend the same college to study business and economics.

So how is their profit and loss account? “At the moment it isn’t great, but we’re still setting up,” says Charlie. “We’re starting to get less loss now. We’re hoping that by the end of the year we’ll start to make a profit.

“We have to compete with the big brands,” he adds. “We’ve undercut the Co-operative. They charge £1.65 for six medium eggs. We charge a pound.”

Between them the boys have 20 regular farm gate customers, plus a handful of others who buy eggs occasionally. But they plan to increase sales.

“We try not to take any eggs away from our customers,” says Alex. “We’re waiting for the hens at Charlie’s to lay big enough eggs to take pressure off the breeding stock.

“We’re both really into business,” he adds. “It if was a job, it would be different. We’d be told to do it, told to paint this and do that. It would feel like a chore. But because we’re making the decisions ourselves it makes it more enjoyable. It’s great.”

“We thought if we didn’t do all this work we’d be watching TV,” adds Charlie. “We’ve got something now.”